Mobility-impaired individuals are often transported in motor vehicles while the individual is seated in a power chair or other personal-transportation vehicle. Transporting an individual in this manner, however, presents various disadvantages. For example, extensive structural modifications to the motor vehicle are usually required to accommodate the mobility-impaired individual and the power chair. The required modifications can include lowering the floor of the motor vehicle, raising the vehicle's roof, etc. Modifying a motor vehicle in this manner can generate a considerable expense to the vehicle's owner or user. Moreover, because the motor vehicle undergoes specialized structural modifications, its open market resale value can be dramatically reduced. In some cases, the resale value may be reduced to zero due to the absence of a sizable market for such “handicapped-modified” vehicles.
Moreover, the current procedures may not provide the thirty mile per hour frontal crash protection provided by most, if not all original equipment manufacturer (OEM) automotive seats. In particular, power chairs are not designed or constructed to withstand the 18-20 g impact loads created during standard automotive crash tests, and subjecting a power chair to such loads will cause the seat back of the chair to fail in virtually all cases.
A need therefore exists for a motor-vehicle seat that accommodates a mobility-impaired user and permits the user to enter and exit the motor vehicle with minimal movement and effort, while meeting the applicable crashworthiness requirements.